JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

High rates of social media use among young people, alongside high mental ill-health within this cohort, have drawn significant public, policy, and research concern. Rapid technological advancements and changes in platform design have impeded researchers’ and policymakers’ empirical understandings of the health effects of social media and hampered timely evidence-based regulatory responses. While a proliferation of recommendations to social media companies and governments have been published, a comprehensive summary of these recommendations does not exist.

Objective:

This scoping review synthesised published recommendations for social media companies and governments in relation to young people’s (aged 12-25 years) mental health. A qualitative approach was utilised to undertake inductive content analysis, where recommendations were grouped into conceptually similar themes.

Methods:

We searched academic (PubMed, SCOPUS, PsycInfo), and non-academic (Overton, Google) databases for relevant documents. Eligible documents provided recommendations to regulators and social media companies that pertained to social media, young people, and mental health. This review excluded recommendations for young people, caregivers, educators, or clinicians surrounding strategies for managing individual social media use; instead, recommendations emphasise the regulation and/or design of social media products, and practices of social media companies. Peer-reviewed and grey literature from selected western contexts (Australia, Canada, UK, USA) were relevant for inclusion. Documents were published between January 2020 to September 2024.

Results:

Of the identified 4,980 unique reports, 120 progressed to full-text screening, and 70 met inclusion criteria. Five interrelated themes were identified: (1) legislating and overseeing accountability; (2) transparency; (3) collaboration; (4) safety by design; and (5) restricting young people’s access to social media. These themes offer insight into various strategies for responding to possible negative impacts of social media on young people’s mental health and wellbeing.

Conclusions:

This review emphasises the need for multi-pronged approaches to address the rapidly increasing presence and reach of social media platforms in young people’s lives. These recommendations provide practical and tangible paths forward for governments and industry, backed by expert organisations in youth mental health and technology regulation, at a time where expert-informed guidance is sorely needed. Future efforts are needed to undertake rigorous evaluations of these proposed recommendations, while continuing to build upon the emerging peer-reviewed evidence-base that should form the foundation of policy and regulatory changes.